Mikael,
OK, I found another workaround. Everyone has great suggestions; you just have to find the best one for you. I think the 3rd party PDF solutions are great and some are free. I took a look at the primopdf that Joseph mentioned, and it is very helpful and links to a site with an incredible amount of pdf software.
In my opinion (mine only) I think that if you are going to use a lot of digital printing to pdf, then to fax, etc. it is helpful to have at least ONE actual Adobe 8.0 program. Yes, Adobe is pricey, but at least you get to install it on two PCs, unlike Microsoft software (excluding laptop exceptions, which seems a bit unfair to those with two desktops, but that's a story for a different day). Now, there are other merge pdf programs, but Adobe tends to do it best. And, I am not sure how other 3rd party programs would do with my suggested method. In fact, in researching and playing with a solution for you (which may not work for you), it is now our solution. OK, so here it is:
As before, I think it is helpful for the person responsible for faxing your records to have a shortcut to the Imported Items folder on his or her desktop. It saves you the trouble of having to browse to the folder. You are correct that not only will you have files for the progress notes, etc., if you have 20 imported items, you will then have X + 20 files to work with.
1. Right-click on the patient's name in the Patient List and note his or her ID#
2. Choose "Print Entire Chart," do the release or records windows, which then brings you to the "Print Entire Chart" dialog box.
3. Check "Entire Chart Detail" ONLY. Leaving out the summary is my choice (may not be anyone else's), but I find it contains a lot of useless, redundant information. If it had a 'true' problem list rather than a list of ICD-9 diagnoses, maybe. I don't think anyone would ever call you back and say, "Where is the summary sheet." A good example is I just started a practice this year, and hundreds of patients transferred from my old practice where we used AC. I have not looked at any of the summaries of the records sent to me. In fact, they just take up space. But, again, just my opinion.
4. DO NOT CHECK: Imported Items.
5. Click on preview. Then click on the second icon. The little green one with the arrow pointing up and to the right.
6. In the Export window, name the file "0" or "3" or "e"; it doesn't matter -- just something quick. Browse to your Imported Items folder on your desktop or wherever you keep it. Again, a shortcut on that PC would make it simpler. Browse to the folder with the patient ID and click on it. This may be one that has 15 to 20 files. Of course, you won't see any of them, because the save type is HTML. Click on Save, and you will watch it export the notes and messages to the ImportItems folder as an HTML file. When it is finished, close the window in front of you. At this point, with two or three clicks, you will have your entire chart (minus the summary sheet -- which you could include if you want) in the Imported Items folder along with all of your imported items. So, in actuality, you could go home, go to lunch whatever knowing that patient number 9999 or whatever has his or her entire record in his or her Imported Items folder.
7. When you are ready to make one file, open up folder 9999 or whichever, highlight all of the files, right-click and choose "Combine files in Acrobat."
8. Although Adobe is pricey, the combine files box has a ton of nice options including the ability to either combine the files into one pdf or to put all of the files into a pdf package. Plus, you can move files up or down, meaning you could put the notes at the top of your file if you wished. Not all of your files in your imported folder will be pdfs, but the notes you just "printed" there will always be on top if they are by virtue of the .htm extension coming before .pdf.
9. Once made, I would save the file into the same folder. Now you will have the native imported files, the files from AC and the entire record pdf in the folder. You can, of course, delete the latter two if you wish or keep either or both. They will not be seen as imports from within Amazing Charts, since they were not imported using the import tool of AC.
So, with two steps you have your record you can fax which is saved conveniently in his or her folder in case you need to fax it again or whatever.
Hope this helps. Sorry, for the length of it.
Last edited by bert; 09/02/2007 1:59 AM.
